Tony, I heard the FET/Valve @ the Chicago Audio Society a few years ago. Sean was there. I really liked its sonic presentation, clarity, dynamics & musicality. I recommended it to my brother in law. I still prefer my Marantz Ma-5 Esotec class A monoblocks, though.
As for the Denon 103-R, I would not recommend it (even if it was retipped every 500 hours). It's not cheap to properly do low output MC amplification and in most cases unnecesary and a bad compromise in the *punch* department. I get the midrange of a $1.5K moving coil and the punch & great trackability of a moving magnet with my modded DJ cartridge! The $54.95 Trackmaster I project is designed to take HF response where it should be. My NOS unit has half the coil windings of modern DJ cartridges (375 Ohm) and more extended HF response. Even with my power delivery/noise control rig I would have to really think it over before making the low output MC leap. Another issue is that the Denon was designed for the massive tonearms of the late 50's/early 1960's. New high mass tonearms tend to be very expensive nowadays, unless one gets an old Lenco or Garrard (EMT, too but not inexpensive).
There' been an unreasonable craze about starting vinyl rigs with low output moving coils. A lot of manufacturers have yielded to this pressure and made their units selectable for low output MCs when in fact they're not really designed for handling them. I still hold the massive cartridge bodies play a big part in the sound. That's one reason why I'm doing the Moca wood cartridge isolator experiment. You signing up?
A Linn Basik with a beefy external surplus power supply and a nice MM like the Stanton 681EEE would be outstanding. Installing a tonearm fluid damper and an Ortofon X5 high output MC would be a wake up call! If you search in the Vinyl Asylum you'll see that the X5 has been preferred by serious audiophiles over many other cartridges (after extended listening sessions). The AudioCircle moderator came to the same conclusion. The X5 is crystalline and airy without artificially bloating the soundstage. I got mine for $125 including shipping from Juki the Hong Kong pirate. Got to get the goodies at discount prices!!!
This is for the Audiofeil: VenHaus hand picks his Beta testers. Yours truly is one of them.
With psychic power and primal intensity,
As for the Denon 103-R, I would not recommend it (even if it was retipped every 500 hours). It's not cheap to properly do low output MC amplification and in most cases unnecesary and a bad compromise in the *punch* department. I get the midrange of a $1.5K moving coil and the punch & great trackability of a moving magnet with my modded DJ cartridge! The $54.95 Trackmaster I project is designed to take HF response where it should be. My NOS unit has half the coil windings of modern DJ cartridges (375 Ohm) and more extended HF response. Even with my power delivery/noise control rig I would have to really think it over before making the low output MC leap. Another issue is that the Denon was designed for the massive tonearms of the late 50's/early 1960's. New high mass tonearms tend to be very expensive nowadays, unless one gets an old Lenco or Garrard (EMT, too but not inexpensive).
There' been an unreasonable craze about starting vinyl rigs with low output moving coils. A lot of manufacturers have yielded to this pressure and made their units selectable for low output MCs when in fact they're not really designed for handling them. I still hold the massive cartridge bodies play a big part in the sound. That's one reason why I'm doing the Moca wood cartridge isolator experiment. You signing up?
A Linn Basik with a beefy external surplus power supply and a nice MM like the Stanton 681EEE would be outstanding. Installing a tonearm fluid damper and an Ortofon X5 high output MC would be a wake up call! If you search in the Vinyl Asylum you'll see that the X5 has been preferred by serious audiophiles over many other cartridges (after extended listening sessions). The AudioCircle moderator came to the same conclusion. The X5 is crystalline and airy without artificially bloating the soundstage. I got mine for $125 including shipping from Juki the Hong Kong pirate. Got to get the goodies at discount prices!!!
This is for the Audiofeil: VenHaus hand picks his Beta testers. Yours truly is one of them.
With psychic power and primal intensity,